MACn.lillOTA. 81 



greyish, and centrally lonjritudinally more obsoletely of the same 

 colour; tegiuina pale ochraceous, subhyaline, the venation prominent 

 especially on apical area ; pronotum and scutellum finely granulose; 

 posterior process long, strongly arched, its apex extending rather 

 beyond the apices of tegmina. 



Length incl. tegm. 6 millim. 



Hah. Silliet {fide Slgmret), — Philippines. 



2223. Machaerota giittigera, Westw. Tr. Ent. Soc. 1880, p. 332, 

 t. viii, ti'. 1-15; 3£elich. Horn. Faim. Ceylon, p. 137 (1903). 



I have not seen this species. Westvvood writes : — "The Ceylon 

 insect agrees with the type {M. ensifera, Burin.) in size and 

 general appearance ; but the head is more pointed in front and 

 is concolorous, whereas it is black in M. ensifera, which latter is 

 destitute of the very minute dark dots with which the Ceylon 

 species is marked both on the body and also on the fore wino-s. 

 The specimens of the latter (preserved, however, in spirits) are 

 uniformly pale luteous-coloured, whilst in the Philippine insect 

 the prothorax is marked with fine slender brown longitudinal vittaj, 

 and the sides of the middle segments of the abdomen are black." 

 " Long. Corp. circ. lin. 3. Expans. tegminum circ. lin. 6." 

 Hah. Ceylon ('S'. Green, Oxford Mus.). 



M. guttigera seems to come near the species described by 

 Walker as ^arnia rastrata, w'hich was taken by Wallace on the 

 island of Flores (J. Linn. Soc, Zool. x, p. 193, 1867). 



Mr. Staniforth Grreen sent Prof. Westwood some valuable 

 bionomieal notes relative to this species. " The larva resides in a 

 tube, which is fixed on a twig or leaf-stalk of the Suriya tulip 

 tree (Adansonia digltata) on the end of the branches. The 

 perfect insect, no doubt, deposits its eggs in the same way that 

 Apropliora * spumaria lays hers ; but I have not yet noticed the 

 growth of the tube. I had one under observation for about a 

 week, and could, with the aid of a lens, see the movements of the 

 larva inside. Its position in the tube was head downwards, and 

 it seemed to be continually working its anus against and round 

 about the inside of the tube near its orifice. At intervals a clear 

 water-like fluid was discharged from its anus, ^\•hich would escape 

 from the tube drop by drop. I allowed some of this to fall upon 

 a clear slip of glass, but it did not seem to congeal. The water 

 seems to drop from the tube day and night, for I have seen it 

 dropping before sunrise. Our insect has a hfe of some weeks in 

 the larval state, and never shows itself outside of its tube until 

 it is ready to assume its perfect state. The change occurs early 

 in the morning, generally between six and se^en o'clock, shortly 

 after sunrise. First of all a quantity of little bubbles appear in 

 the form of a knot at the mouth of the tube. Then the pupa 

 comes out tail first, and takes up a position on the top of the 

 tube (transversely, like the letter T) and in the middle of the 



* Ftyelus spicmarius, cf. p. 87. 



VOL. lY. 



